RETIREMENT HAS ITS PERKS

The picture says it all!

I always wanted to live a carefree life, one of no obligations or needing to rise up at a certain time every morning and have to do something. Retirement is NOT how to do it.

Being retired has set a panic mode in me way back when I first decided to do so. The daily routine of having a job seems to have set a pattern in my endless need to feel productive, to still contribute. Watching those with jobs being involved in something suddenly made me jealous. A kind of desperation set in and I feared I would be left out of life, a meaningless existence fueled by boredom.

I took stock of what I was capable of and decided there was still a lot left to do. There was my membership on the Board of Directors of Suffolk AHRC, there was art, I love to write, there is cooking, and I have the time to visit places such as museums, movies and libraries, and places of historic interest.

But the biggest perk, of course, is my granddaughter visiting her and seeing her on Facetime has given me the reason to look forward to every Sunday morning. That is a perk, being called grandpa by this incredible little child. God IS good.

Now I have this project I am sharing with Frank. It is a labor of love because it mirrors my life as a child as it reports his. To have this opportunity to do this, and with such a fine gentleman as he, it really isn't labor. The project offers all kinds of additional opportunities as I work on it, so I look forward to the next few years.

As I write this, Frank and our wives and I will meet for dinner tonight for the first time. TLW (The Little Woman) will be introduced to Frank and his lovely wife Frances, she too is from the old sod, just like Frank, Brooklyn. They met long ago and married these many years later. How great is that?

So tonight, after dinner, I will drop by their home and we will open a bottle of bubbly to celebrate the occasion and toast my good fortune of meeting these guys.